THE INTERPRETER HAS ONE OF THE MOST OUTSTANDING TRAJECTORIES IN SPANISH AUDIOVISUAL WITH OVER 70 TITLES IN HER FILMOGRAPHY AND NEARLY 30 AWARDS BOTH NATIONALLY AND INTERNATIONALLY.
THE CEREMONY WILL BE HELD ON TUESDAY, JUNE 13 AT THE OLIMPIA THEATER IN HUESCA
The Huesca International Film Festival will award the Luis Buñuel Award in its 51st edition to the actress Aitana Sánchez-Gijón, one of the most prominent names in the Spanish-language audiovisual industry, who treasures a career of over five decades. She has participated in more than 70 productions, for which she has received nearly thirty awards inside and outside Spain. Her talent has shone in film, television and theater, and she was the winner of Platino and Feroz Award for Best Supporting Actress in 2022 for Parallel Mothers by Pedro Almodóvar; in 1988 Sánchez-Gijón became the first woman to preside over the Spanish Film Academy. “She is a referent for the entire sector, praised by critics and loved by the public. Aitana is an empowered woman and for us it is an honor to recognize her trajectory and her work in the cultural field ”declared Estela Rasal, director of the Huesca event.
The gala will take place on Tuesday, June 13th at the Olimpia Theater, the headquarters of the Alto Aragon festival. This iconic venue will showcase a carefully curated selection of short films in which the awardee has participated throughout her career, a lesser-known facet for the general public but one that directly links the recognition with the essence and backbone of the Huesca event, one of the oldest focused on this genre, and one of the only six Spanish festivals that qualify for the Oscars. The session will feature productions selected at Cannes and nominated for the Goya Awards, where all the registers of this great performer will be shown: drama, comedy, and even horror.
Aitana Sánchez-Gijón’s name joins the list of awardees that includes great personalities of the film industry such as Bertrand Tavernier, Marisa Paredes, Stephen Frears, Carlos Saura, Ángela Molina, Jean-Claude Carrière, Costa-Gavras, Álex de la Iglesia, Gonzalo Suárez, the Taviani brothers, Isabel Coixet, and Terry Gilliam last year, among many others.
A TALENT WITHOUT BORDERS
Aitana Sánchez-Gijón (Rome, 1968) is one of the most charismatic performers in the Spanish audiovisual industry. With an unquestionable international trajectory and prestige, throughout her career she has worked all over Europe, Latin America, and even in Hollywood. Her artistic debut was in theater and television, but it was with Fernando Colomo’s film Bajarse al Moro (1989) that she attracted all the attention. Her first leading role came with Pedro de la Sota’s Vientos de Cólera.
During the 1990s, she garnered widespread critical acclaim and was celebrated by audiences with Manuel Gómez Pereira’s Mouth to Mouth, Pilar Miró’s The Bird of Happiness, Vicente Aranda’s Jealousy, and The Chambermaid on the Titanic and Volaverunt by Bigas Luna. For the latter role, she received the Silver Shell for Best Actress at the San Sebastián Film Festival. Established as one of the great stars of the Iberian scene, Hollywood would knock on her door with the film A Walk in the Clouds by Alfonso Arau, in which she shared the screen with Keanu Reeves.
Her filmography includes works by José María Forqué, Fernando Fernán Gómez, Gonzalo Suárez, Imanol Uribe, Jaime Chávarri, Adolfo Aristarain, Juan José Campanella, Luis Puenzo, Gabrielle Salvatores, Silvio Muccino, and Pedro Almodóvar, and she has shared scenes with actors such as Olivier Martínez, Gary Oldman, Christian Bale, Penélope Cruz, Javier Bardem, Denis Leary, Terence Stamp, and Virginie Ledoyen.
The theater, another of her passions, has brought her important successes such as Miguel Narros’ A Puerta Cerrada and Mario Gas’ Cat on a Hot Ton Roof and The Maids. She has played several times with Mario Vargas Llosa in The Arabian Nights, Odysseus and Penelope, La Verdad de las Mentiras, and Los Cuentos de la Peste, directed by Joan Ollé. In addition, she triumphed with the staging of Yasmina Reza’s God of Carnage, directed by Tamzin Townsend, and shortly thereafter in the play Santo, performed at Teatro Español and directed by Ernesto Caballero.
She is also recognized for her work in television. She stood out in her leading role in the adaptation of Leopoldo Alas Clarín’s novel La Regenta, directed by Fernando Méndez-Leite, bringing to life a tormented Ana Ozores. In 2010, she starred in La Viuda Valenciana,” an adaptation of the play by Lope de Vega, and three years later, she participated in the series Velvet as Doña Blanca. In 2019, she joined the cast of the TVE series Estoy Vivo.
In 1998, Aitana Sánchez-Gijón became the first woman to hold the position of President of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences of Spain, a position she held until 2000.
Throughout her career, she has received many awards and nominations, but for her starring performance in “Medea,” she received numerous distinctions throughout the year 2015, such as the CERES Award for Best Actress, the Fotogramas de Plata Award, the Valle-Inclán Award, the Ercilla Theater Award, and the MAX Award for Performing Arts. In the same year, she was awarded the Gold Medal by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences of Spain, while in 2022 she was awarded the distinction of Honorary Academician of the Academy of Performing Arts of Spain.